A new, free white paper-"Best Practices for Using Games & Simulations in the Classroom"-that tackles the practical challenges teachers face when they use video games was released this past February by the Software & Information Industry Association's Education Division. In this article, Lee Wilson, the author of the paper and the co-chair of the working group that produced it, summarizes, excerpts from, and describes the main points of the report.

Should students use aliases, their name and surname innitial or the full names when communiacting "inclass" online? What about lifelong portfolios....great post

Visualising a change in thinking and common practices around learning environments. A significant shift is starting to occur. Some very useful tables

This library has great resource books and tutorials on anything from authoring of web based tests, to using audacity, to basic numeracy....a really fab selection of visually stimulating book like interfaces. You can download it as exe files (some gave me hassles and showed up as trojans but was fine or you can download the actual reader to view it with

Free to educators, the CyberSmart! Student Curriculum empowers students to use the Internet safely, responsibly, and effectively. Students at work * S Safety and Security Online * M Manners, Cyberbullying and Ethics * A Authentic Learning and Creativity * R Research and Information Fluency * T Twenty-First Century Challenges

In this post, educator Darren Draper uses video clips to explain the different types of copyright resources that are available under the Creative Commons. He also lists a number of sources for images, sound and video.

The virtual world opens up new opportunities for learning and creativity, but it also means thinking ahead of new risks. This section sets out the basic elements of good practice to keep our learners safe.

An example of an AUP for learners from @dajbelshaw

an independent review looking at the risks to children from exposure to potentially harmful or inappropriate material on the internet and in video games.

This page is being built not only to generate content about social networking for teachers, but also as a demonstration of the effects of social networking, as the process of building out this page will be captured and produced as a video.

Awesome Library organizes the Web with 37,000 carefully reviewed resources, including the top 5 percent in education. You can search according to different relevant catagories or as a teacher, parent, kid....

Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights. Tell your story now digitally. - Leslie Rule, Digital Storytelling Association

One of Tom's great reflections of how he uses twitter in in class

A new poll conducted by the nonprofit organization Common Sense Media suggests that students are using cell phones and the internet to cheat on school exams. What's surprising, however, is not just the alarming number of students who say they cheat, but also the number of students who think it's OK to do so.

The Independent Review of ICT User Skills of Britain's population has just been published. It makes for some interesting reading.

The full title should have been "Eleven Reasons Why a Tablet PC + Digital Projector is Better Than a Whiteboard or Overhead Projector… and Sometimes Smarter Than a Smartboard". My primary point is this: People are still "discovering" what a Tablet PC can do. Once educators realize that they do everything a laptop does PLUS you can draw in the screen, then the next obvious question becomes, "How does this help me in class?" I have some practical examples to share...

Teachers are the largest professionally trained group in the world, yet teacher training is often spotty, inconsequential, or missing entirely. We've all had a teacher who made the difference. Teachers Without Borders' founder, Dr. Mednick, will show the connection between excellent teachers and human welfare, on a global level. The message is clear: focus on the teachers as the most viable catalysts for positive change.